Greenwood by Michael Christie

 

Greenwood starts out at an eco-entertainment refuge in 2038.  The Earth is choking on dust and people are dying everywhere, their children coughing so hard their ribs snap like kindling.  Greenwood Island in Canada is one of the last places with forested land and rich tourists pay fortunes to come and visit the trees.  Jake (Jacinda) is a ranger there and when she sees the first sign of disease in the trees, she is horrified and knows something must be done although her bosses do not agree.  

From Jake the novel travels back in time thought the generations.  There is Jake's father, a carpenter and furniture maker who works in reclaimed wood.  His mother Willow is considered an ecoterrorist and she threw away the fortune she inherited to live in the forest and do what she could to save them.  

But the majority of the book tells the stories of the original Greenwood brothers back in the 1920's and 1930's.  Harris and Everett are not really brothers but are raised that way, survivors of a horrific train accident that took their families and left them in the wooded Canadian north.  No one knows their family names so they are given the Greenwood name and left to the raising of an elderly isolated woman who sheltered them in a shack outside her comfortable home and ignored them.  That made the boys close, probably closer than those who did share blood.

Harris grows up and loses his sight to disease.  Regardless of his handicap, he becomes an influential and wealthy man, his fortune based on the timber he cuts and sells to those building railroads and houses in frontier and foreign lands.  His brother Everett goes to war in Harris' stead and returns a broken man.  They become estranged and only come together over their love for Willow and the mysteries surrounding her birth.  

This novel was longlisted for the Giller Prize.  It's structure echoes that of the great trees, with concentric circles leading backwards to the start of the tree's story.  There are analogies between trees and human families and an exploration of family secrets and love that spans the generations.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.